Can washer



Feb; 5, 1924. HABZAQ I T. L. VALERIUS ET AL CAN WASHER I I Filed July 17, 1919 3 Sheets-Sheet A Q%% Feb, 5 1924. LMW

r T. L. VALERIUS ET AL CAN WASHER- Filed July 1?, 1919 s Sheets-Sheet? Feb. 5, 1924.

T. L. VALERIUS ET AL CAN WASHER Filed July 17, 1919 S Sheets-Sheet 0.

gg iz AV 7 k I 2 v Patented Feb. 5, 1924.

UMTED STATES PATENT OFFfQE.

THEODORE L. VALERIUS AND OLAF LARSEN, OF FORT ATKINSON, WISCONSIN, AS-

SIGN 038 TO THE CREAMERY PACKAGE MFG. COlVIIPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A

CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

CAN WASHER.

Application filed July 17, 1919. Serial No. 811,508.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, THEODORE L. VA- LERIUS and OLAF LARSEN, citizens of the United States, residing at Fort Atkinson, in

the county of Jefferson and State of Wisconsin, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Can Washer, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to washing machinery and more specifically to an apparatus for soaking, scrubbin and scalding containers of the type use in the manufacture of ice cream and the handling of dairy products.

duce a device of this character in which the scrubbing of both the inside and outside of the container may be quickly and economically done by power.

Another object is to provide in the same apparatus a scalding stand conveniently 10- cated adjacent the scrubbing machinery.

A further object is to provide a scalding device which will deliver a supply of hot clean water resulting from the condensation of the steam and hot water used in scalding, thus economizing in the use of power as the heat necessary to scald the cans is sufficient to provide a considerable supply of hot water besides sterilizing the cans.

A further object is to simplify and cheapen the construction of our device and of the power transmission thereto.

A special object is to arrange the parts of having any number of brushes, units of different sizes being all made up of standard parts.

Other objects and advantages of our invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.

In the accompanying drawings, Fi re 1 is a plan view of a scrubbing and ster1lizing device according to our invention. Fig. 2 is a side elevation partly broken away of the same device, the water and steam supply pipes and valves being mounted Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-.-3 of Fig. 2, showing a detail rear view of the power control and part of the stationary brush mounting. Fig. 4. is a front elevation of the device partly in section and Fig. 5 is a fragmental rear view.

In the embodiment of our invention se- One object of our invention is to pro-,

such a device so that it can be built in units lected for illustration, a tank 10 is supported at a suitable elevation above the floor on metal legs 11 made of any desired standard structural section. We have illustrated angle irons located at the four corners of the device but it will be obvious that if the tank is very long intermediate legs may be used which might be channels suitably attached to the walls of the tank.

The tank illustrated in Figure 1 is long enough to contain two brushes 12 extending horizontally forward from the rear wall of the tank. The brushes are each rotatably mounted on a horizontal shaft 14 journaled in a bearing 15 projecting through the rear wall of the tank. A relatively stationa brush 16 is pivoted at the end of an arm l7 and extends out over each rotating brush. On the arm 17 is an integral rearwardly extending projection 18 engaging a vertical rod 19, pivotally connected to the end of said projection 18 and extending downward through a horizontal flange 20 on the rear bracket 21. A compression spring 22 engaging the lower face of the flange 20 and a washer 23 held on the lower end of the rod 19 by suitable nut 24, operates to rotate the arm 17 around its axle 17 and hold the brush 16 in an elevated position over the rotating brush 12. A handle 25 projecting from and integrally united to the arm 17 may be grasped by the operator to pull the stationar brush 16 downward.

In scrubbing containers in this device, the tank is maintained full of warm water up to the level of the overflow 26 through which any excess is drained oil". The bottom of the tank slopes downward and forward as clearly shown in Fig. 2, providing a space in front of the brushes 12 where the containers may be allowed to rest and soak in the hot water. The slope prevents them from rolling against the brushes and also provides deeper water at the front. To scrub one of the containers, it is thrust over one of the brushes 12 and held stationary by the operator while the rotating brush thoroughly scrubs the entire inside of the can. The can is then released and allowed to rotate with the brush and the stationary brush 16 may be lowered to engage its outer surface and scrub the outside. The can is then removed and placed open end down on a scalding rack comprising angle irons 27 and also as a and floor strips 28 located over a small come partment 29 formed in one end of the tank by a partition 30.

Means for scalding the cans while they may be supplied tbthe nozzles 31 by a'water' supply pipe 33 controlled by a stop valve: 34 and an adjustable valve 35, and a steam pipe 86 controlled by a quick opening valve 37. Containers are preferably allowed to accumulate over the nozzles 31 until thereis one container over each nozzle when they" may all be quickly scalded by a single opera-- tion of the control valves and then re moved from the rack. The steam and water for scalding enter the riser 38 and pass.v

around a short coil 39 before being delivered. to the nozzles 31. The coil 39 serves as a mixing chamber for the steam and water i heater for the water in compartment 29. The water and steam used in scalding the cans keeps the end compart ment 29 full of practicallyclean hot water- A suitable overflow 40 is shown for main taining the water in the compartment 29 at the proper level. This supply of hot water may be used to maintain the temperature and freshness ofthe water in the main compartment of the tank by omitting the over flow 40 and cutting a holein the partition 30 through which the water may flow from the compartment 29 into the rmain body of thetank. M p p y Means for rotating the brushes 12 by power ma be provided, and as illustrated comprise a pulley 41 mounted on a horizontal axle 42 in a supporting: bearing 43 in the rear bracket 21 and adapted to receive. power from any suitable source; such as a belt (not shown). The axle 42 carries a pinion 44 engaging a gear wheel 45. The gear wheel. 45 is slidably mounted on the shaft 14 of the brush 12 and has an elongated boss 46 carrying clutch teeth at its forward end. A sprocket wheel 48 is adapted to drive the shaft 14 and carries cooperating clutch teeth, into engagement with which the boss 46 may be slid as clearly indicated in Figs. 1 and 2. The pinion 44 has a wider face than the gear 45 so that the gear may slide with reference to the pinion asuiiicientdistance to permit engagement of the clutch. 7

n We have provided means for operating the clutch from the front of the apparatus comprising a clutch finger 50 suitably'en- 'gaginganarinular groove 51 in the boss '46 and rotatable .on. the horizontal axle 52 to operate the clutch The axle '52 extends laterally a short distance and carries Steam or nesaase an upwardly extending crank arm 58 con nected to a horizontally slidable push rod 54. A suitable handle 55 projecting upward from said push rod may be used by the operator to actuate the push bar and control the application of power to the brush. The brushes are arranged to be simultaneously driven by means of a chain 56 passing over the sprocket 48 on the brush just described to rotate a sprocket 57 on the shaft of the adjacent brush. The sprocket 5'? is similar to the first mentioned sprocket 48 except that it has no clutch teeth. The shaft of the second brush 12 as shown in Fig. 1 is long enough to carry another sprocket wheel similar to the sprocket 57 shown, between its hearings in the bracket 60. Tanks of various sizes containing any desired number of brushes may beeasily constructed without requiring any special parts as any number of brushes with rear brackets similar to the bracket 60 may easily be added to the equipment shown.

As shown in 2, the brush 12.is readily removable from'the shaft 14 being held in place thereon by a cotter-pin 61 so that various sizes of brushes may be kept at hand and may be mounted on the different shafts of the machine for cleaning containers of various sizes. As illustrated in Fig. 1, the brushes 12 are of different sizes so that the equipment shown may operate on two different sizes of containers. The rear bracket 21 is a 1 single integral casting providing bearings for the axles 17, 42 and 52 and the shaft 14, a guide for the rod 19 and an abutment for the spring 22, and is of a relatively simple U-shaped configuration clearly shown by the drawingsin Figs. 1, 2 and 5.

An apparatus according to our invention is relatively simple and composed of a few rigid parts well adapted to withstand the wear and tear of service. It may be built in units of any size and in largeunits a plurality of scalding compartments may be located at suitable intervals with brushes between them so that a number of operators may work side by side with scalding compartments conveniently located near each operator.

While we have shown and described in detail a particular embodiment of our invention, it should be clearly understood that the description is for purposes of illustration only and that many modifications and improvements will naturally occur to those skilled in the art. We aim in the subjoined. claims to cover all such legitimate modifications and alternative constructions.

We claim as our invention:

1. In a machine of the character described the combination of a tank, a bracket mounted upon one upright wall of the tank, a rotatablespindle journalled in said bracket so as to extend forwardly and horizontally iao into the tank, a brush carried by said spindle, a second brush, and an arm pivoted upon a horizontal axis on said bracket and extending forwardly over the first mentioned brush and carrying said second brush, said arm having a portion projecting rearwardly, spring means bearing between said portion and said bracket tending to resist downward movement of said second brush.

2. In a machine of the character described, the combination of a tank, a bracket mounted upon one upright wall of the tank, a spindle journaled in said bracket so as to extend forwardly and horizontally into the 1; tank, a brush carried by said spindle, a second brush, an arm pivoted upon a horizontal axis on said bracket and extending forwardly over the first mentioned brush and carrying said second brush, said arm having an extension operable from the front of said tank for manually swinging said second brush, means tending to resist the downward movement of said second brush, means mounted upon said bracket for rotating said spindle including a driving element and a clutch connection between said driving element and said spindle, and means for engaging said clutch connection operable from the front of said tank.

3. In a machine of the character described,

the combination of a tank, a bracket mounted on the rear wall of the tank, a spindle journaled in said bracket and extending horizontally into the tank, a brush carried y d spindle, an arm pivoted on said 3 bracket and extending over said brush, a second brush pivotally mounted on said arm with its pivot axis in transverse relation to said spindle, said arm being operable to swing said second brush toward said first THEODORE L. VALERIUS. OLAF LARSEN. 

